MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the Vice President (OVP) was perplexed why the administration was focused on the tweets of Vice President Leni Robredo’s daughters when there is still a lot of work to do after the recent typhoons’ onslaught over Luzon.
Robredo’s spokesperson Barry Gutierrez said on Thursday they do not understand why a huge amount of time is being allotted to analyze the tweets of Tricia Robredo and Aika Robredo — whom Malacañang attributed as the basis for President Rodrigo Duterte’s outbursts on Tuesday night.
“Good lord, 69 Filipinos killed, 325,000 displaced, over P1.5B in damages, and this administration is now spending its time analyzing TWEETS by VP Leni’s daughters?!” Gutierrez said on Twitter.
“Si VP Leni balik agad trabaho. Kayo tatlong araw na ito pa rin ang hanash. Sino nga uli ang namumulitika?” he asked.
(VP Leni immediately went back to work. But you have been talking about this for three days. Who is politicking again?)
Duterte heavily criticized Robredo during his briefing about the COVID-19 status in the country, saying that she was grandstanding and lying by asking for his whereabouts during while Typhoon Ulysses was ravaging the country — referring to the #NasaanAngPangulo trend on social media.
While Ulysses brought immense flooding over Metro Manila and Rizal, especially in Marikina, Rodriguez, and San Mateo, Robredo was active on her Twitter account to respond to calls for help and rescue.
The same thing happened while Cagayan was asking for help overnight, as she formed a team that would coordinate the location of people asking for rescue with operatives and the military personnel on the ground.
Nonetheless, Robredo never publicly asked for Duterte’s whereabouts, even saying that she believes a President does not need to appear publicly during the storm, as authorized representatives from the Cabinet can do.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said earlier that he is unsure if Robredo indeed looked for Duterte, but mentioned the tweets made by Robredo’s daughters.
In the first tweet, Tricia Robredo said “Tulog pa rin? Alas otso na.” which literally translates to “Still asleep? It’s already 8:00 a.m.” Aika Robredo then replied by saying “Sabado eh. Weekend.” which means “It’s a Saturday. Weekend.”
There was no mention of the President or any official in the tweet cited by Roque.
Duterte, who maintained that he was at the Asean summit as Ulysses left a trail of destruction, insisted that Robredo was lying by making it seem that no one is in charge.
He also said that Robredo appeared to be giving orders to the military and the police, when both organizations and other agencies involved in rescue and relief operations have been prepositioned.
Robredo for her part has vehemently denied asking for Duterte’s whereabouts, saying that the President has been fed lies about her ever since. She also clarified that she did not order the military, and that her discussions were only for coordination of rescue requests.